(apologies in advance for all the typos, these days my typing has gotten terribly bad and on top of THAT, I'm typing on a Japanese keyboard!)
Had a rather eventful day yesterday in Tokyo. Toured the Imperial Gardens which, together with the imperial palace, lies on the ramains of the former Edo castle. The place is HUGE. There's a moat within a moat, an inner citadel, and an outer. Seemed like every few minutes I'd come across a new moat and a nother wall. And that was only in the East Gardens (the only part that's open to the public).
OK, nuff of the boring stuff. Backing up a bit, I also visited Kinokuniya in Shibuya to look for a nice map that gives transit times between the major cities. I didn't find any, but i picked up a good little book for 990 Yen called "The Tokyo Pub Crawl" which basically has a bunch of bar recomendations for the various districts of Tokyo. So on my way back from the gardens, I decided to check out this place called "The Celtic Warrior". In the maze of the Ueno (2 subway stops away from the place i was staying at), I almost gave up looking for it.
So I go in during happy hour for a nice pint of Guiness (500 yen still). The place is half full (its a tiny place) and I just kick back reading a bit more through the LP guide. So about 30 min later, i'm about done when this chick comes in, seemingly meeting with a friend, but then she sits down next to me! Shes obviously a gaijin and i just sit there sipping away at the last drops of my drink. So she orders a Corona, and after the first sip she flags the bartender down and ends up spitting a mouthful of corona out into an ash tray. okaaaay. In a nutshell, she then starts talking to me: she's from Venezuela, married a japanese guy, moved over to Tokyo, has 2 kids, her 14 yo has a great body and big boobs (her description!), and how people in Tokyo are so unfriendly and how people are all sad, how her kids have a tough time cuz they're mixed, how the guys grab her when she runs through Ueno Park at night. All this in broken English with mixed Japanese. Bleh. Oh, this lady's got serious issues. Lucky for me this dude sitting next to her goes "Hey I overheard you're from California, what part?" Turns out the guy graduated from Cal in '95. So i start talking to him and the lady escuseds herself to talk to someone else.....
So i'm talking to this guy who apparently graduated from cal, lived in SF for some time and commuted somwhere in the east bay. He even graduated from CED (I forgot what it stands for) and spent sometime in Wurster...Of course i think, hey my GF was Architecture major and also spent some time in there, but before i mention anything, he said "hey, wanna tour of the area".
Why not? so i go around where he proceeds to point out the general thrift market where locals go to buy stuff, the cheap fish market, the international ATM, and other useful stuff. We then pass through the redlight district and describes how they work...a buncha guys with headsets are at the bottom where they basically make a deal, once they make a deal they radio back and i guess you go in. However, they trick you by sticking food or something in there and charge you 10K yen for it. All this is from stories he says, since he's never been to one..."uh huh" i think.
Anywhoo, we pass through with no incidents and only a couple of friendly waves from some hookers. We wander through a Pachinko parlor (often named "Oriental Passage") where they utlize a nice loophole to legally gamble. Esentially, you win a "prize" for a given number of balls. And then, conveneintly enough, there a place right next store that is willing to pay money for those prizes!
Okkkk....Then he oints out a sign "Hey there's the Japanese Bath place i was talking about earlier". So let me preface this with the fact that many guides have large sections about the Japanese Onsen and how the Japanese bath is deeply rooted in their culture. They say they go to one at least once a week (these are less real "baths" and more like day spas). So he asks, "wanna try it?" Sooooo, figuring "what the hell?" I say ok.
Another little background on the Japanese bathing experience. Its esentially a public bath. Single sex (all guys) and it's a no no to even bring a towel into the bath (though you can use it outide of the water). Ok, since i got some extra time, let e describe the process. You bascially go in, stick your shoes in a locker and exchange the shoe key for another locker key. This locker contains a couple towels, some shorts, and a robe. You then stip down, sticking on the shorts and the robe.
You then proceed towards the bath area where you strip butt nekkid and take 1 towel with you (the smaller of the two).
You take some water from the bath and splash it on yourself, then sit on this stool in front of a shower thingy where you wash yourself down. Then they have an outdoor spa and an indoor spa you go into. Again, butt nekkid. In addition to the spa, there's showers, a sauna, a room with seats to read in fron of the TV, a room with lazy boy's with built in LCD TVs, and a room with futons where you can take a little snooze (apparently, you can use these places to spend the night if you're in a bind). Oh ya, there's also a room where you can order food and stuff.
So, things started becoming a little bit awkward (Comments like "gee, I bet you didn't think you'd be seeing me naked" and "Can you turn to face me a little more" [while sitting naked on the balcony] and "They all stare at me because I'm white and want to see my big dick") it basically turns out that this dude I'm with is gay. Well first he said "bi", then he said gay..oh boy...I was outta there pretty fast. So fast that i got lost on my way back and had to double back a couple times!
So now i'm slightly traumetized by the whole onsen experinece....
And i thought i was doing so well with this culture assimilation thing!
SOOOOO. I am in Nikko right now and it is rather a stroke of luck that i have a few hours to kill plus the attendant tripped over the power cord,giving me 1hr free after profusely appologizing.
BTW, not only did that guy go to Cal, the guy who ran my Hotel in Tokyo apparenlty has an Aunt who used to run a Japanese restaurant in Danville and knew the Bay Area pretty well...freaky. It's like i'm being followed!